Furniture Donation and Pick-Up Information

If you want to donate furniture, there are many organizations that will put it to good use and some nonprofits will even pick up furniture donations from your home. Your furniture will typically go to people who can’t afford their own furniture. This includes the recently homeless, battered women escaping dangerous situations, the working poor and victims of natural disasters.

Furniture donations should be in good shape. Nonprofits usually won’t accept furniture with rips or stains and items that are broken.

Organizations that accept or pick up your furniture donation:

• Habitat for Humanity ReStores resell household items. They will come to your house and pickup furniture, cabinets, electronics, appliances and building materials. Search their 852 US and Canada locations for one near you. Proceeds are used to build and repair affordable housing for people who need it.
• The Salvation Army also accepts furniture and will pick them up from your house (pickup is only in certain geographies). Donations to the Salvation Army are sold at their Family Stores and proceeds from all sales support adult rehabilitation centers for people struggling with drugs and alcohol. You can use this link to find out if the location near you picks-up. You can also call: 800-728-7825. Salvation Army also accepts household goods, appliances and clothing.
• Some Goodwill centers will accept gently used furniture. You have to call the Goodwill near you to see if they accept furniture and if they have a pick-up service. You can use the zip code locator at the top of the page to find your nearest Goodwill. Your furniture will be sold in a Goodwill store or on their online auction site. Proceeds are used to fund job training and other social services. Goodwill also accepts clothing, housewares, electronics.
• Pickup Please will pick up small furniture — Mirrors, nightstands, headboards, and office chairs. They will not pick up large furniture items. They pick up in CA, DE, MI, OR, VA, CO, FL, NJ, PA, CT, LA, NY MD. You can schedule a donation pickup online, and it will be picked up at your house. All proceeds benefit the Vietnam Veterans of America. Pickup Please also picks up clothing donations and household goods.
• Furniture banks are nonprofits that accept donations of furniture and household furnishings and provides them to families struggling financially to furnish their own homes. They serve people who were previously homeless, the working poor, battered women, immigrants, victims of national disasters and others. They provide furniture to over 100,000 people each year. There are about 100 furniture banks in the US and Canada. You can use their directory to find out if one is nearby. Many Furniture Banks offer a free pickup service.

If you are looking for other local places to donate furniture, you can check out your local:

• Homeless Shelters
• Battered Women’s Shelters
• Thrift stores (many thrift stores donate proceeds to charity)

If you want to offer your furniture for free and have someone pick it up, you can check out:

• Freecycle, a nonprofit online listing service to give your unwanted items for free to people in your community. There are thousands of local groups with over 9 million members in 110 countries. If you’re interested, you go to the Freecycle web site, find your local group and post items you’d like to give away. When you search for your local group, don’t try to search by zip code. For the U.S. you have to type in city and state.

Tax benefit of donating your furniture:

• If you donate your furniture, you can get a tax deduction. You will need to request a receipt from the organization. This IRS publication explains guidelines for donating and valuing your donations of furniture and household goods. The Salvation Army also has a donation value guide, and Goodwill has a donation value guide. Any of these can be used to help you determine the value of your donation.

Have more than furniture to donate? See a full list of where to donate most items you have in your house. From clothing to sporting goods to appliances to books to toys and more.